Now, steel yourself for yet more grim news: it looks like the annual quiz night for foreign exchange bankers is off. Several regular attendees say they have heard nothing about the event this year, and assume it has fallen victim to a Ban On Fun. Say it ain’t so!

The general-knowledge-and-booze-based quiz, usually held around the end of February, is a social highlight of the year for traders and currencies bankers, and a handy fundraiser for charity. The crowd is usually 150 – 200 people. Last year’s bash was at Mansion House. Before that, it was in Canary Wharf.

The host each year: none other than Martin ‘The Hammer’ Mallett, chief FX dealer at the Bank of England. (As he is the compere for the evening, presumably that makes him ‘MC Hammer’. Anyway. More on him here.)

“It’s very competitive, and taken seriously,” said one previous attendee, who is ruing the lack of news about a quiz this year.